grey hawk

December 2nd, 2015

Its early afternoon on the 16th and Beltin, Obregon and Sanna begin reading their books. Nat heads off on his own errands, Gonoan goes drinking and Pike heads to the Dark Moon monastery to see what he owes. The monastery is large and extremely well manicured with the door open and inviting. Pike meets with the head monk, Iquoyan. He appears wise and unflappable. Pike shares his reason for stopping by and is led further inside. He is told he will be facing up to 3 of their best warriors to which Pike objects but ultimately accepts. The rules are non-lethal damage only; weapons must be blunted and magic items removed until the fight begins. The arena is quite large with covered pits scattered around and a large open pit in the center with water in the bottom and a small platform in the center at ground level. There are monks at each of the 3 single doors out and Pike comes in through 2 large double doors. Without preamble, the monks begin to move, one immediately moving adjacent. Pike puts on his blink ring and manages to avoid an attack. The other 2 move up as well. The first monk takes a couple of swings but cannot catch Pike, who now tumbles away and shoots Purple. Red moves up and misses, Purple does the same but still can’t’ catch Pike. Pike rolls away again, hitting Purple again. Purple hits him but the other 2 miss. Pike attempts to cross the beams to the center platform but falls. He still hits purple again. He takes another hit when they approach. He manages to climb the middle platform and hits purple again. Red climbs on to a beam but misses as does purple. This continues for a number of rounds until Pike manages to take down 2 of the 3 at which time Iquoyan calls it a victory. He offers him a healing tea and tells him a story about Zuwokan, their god. Elders of the order have long suspected that Zuoken is imprisoned in the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk, for Zagig is known to have captured several demigods—including Iuz the Old—about the time Zuoken vanished from Oerth. To this end, about fifteen years ago the monks hired the disgraced Lord Robilar to escort an elite group of devoted masters into the castle in hopes of discovering their patron’s whereabouts. Some in the order questioned the wisdom of employing a known criminal, but all ultimately agreed that Robilar’s expertise would serve them well in the dungeons below Zagig’s ruined estate. The order thereafter heard nothing from the expedition, and after a month divinations revealed that the monks had all been killed. But Robilar remained alive. When the fighter was seen in the city thereafter, he claimed no knowledge of the monks and warned the monastery to leave him alone or face dire consequences. The monks believe that Robilar murdered their brothers and sisters and simply pocketed his exorbitant fee, a suspicion all but confirmed by the fighter’s subsequent betrayal of the Circle of Eight on the Day of Great Signing. The elder monks believe that Robilar has returned to Greyhawk for Riggby’s funeral in the guise of Ricard Damaris’s friend Captain Gallancz, and they know outright of Robilar’s former ownership of the Green Dragon Inn. He requests our parties assistance with rescuing their god from the ruins. He offers a fist sized ruby to Pike who gladly accepts it. He decides not to show it to us in a fit of pique. Sanna and Elaine go shopping for new outfits for the funeral the next day. We hang out at the Green dragon Inn and ask after Galanz who hasn’t been around in a while. Pleasant conversation ensues. The next day, we receive some special information on when and where to show up if we are interested in attending the funeral. We all attend at the temple of Boccob and see Riann again standing near the casket. They speak about Rigby and his life. They bring out a large rod, a group of different magic users and begin a ritual to imbue it as an artifact with Rigby’s life energy. The crowd begins to disperse and Sanna waves at Riann who comes over. She is lost about what to do next and Sanna invites her to join with us. She is not ready but will contact us when she wants to talk. She comes a few days later and we speak. She compliments our house and Sanna tries to impress her. Pike points out the statue of Boccob that we have. She tells us that the temples intelligence believes a blasphemous half demon/dark elf is hiding in the ruins. Her name is Kalystys and has staged attacks in the past. No one remembers what happened to earn her enmity. The attacks seem to be trying to find a weakness in the defenses of the church of boccob but she flees when discovered. We call Natauru out and ask if he knows anything about the demon. He does not know of her specifically but believes we have the tools necessary to defeat a demon. Riann asks us to bring her proof of the demons demise and heads back to the church. We finish our reading, collect our items on order and head back to the ruins. We approach the tower of magic and Nat calls out a couple of the kobolds on guard to assure them that we are going to free their people. They respect him and we are unmolested. We can see Grandfather magic off a ways but he doesn’t seem to notice us. Sanna attempts to put the key in the ruby skull which begins to glow and vibrate. Suddenly, it opens and a butterfly comes out. Sanna tries to grab it and misses. It begins to fly towards the acolytes and the purple smoke ceases. The kobolds open the main door and some other kobolds exit, seeming relieved to be out. The acolytes attempt to get Grandfather Magic to come our direction but he resists and then exclaims that the barrier is down and that “they succeeded”. “The butterfly, the butterfly, now it will lead me to the one true portal”. He begins to follow it, ignoring us. The door is open…